HR822 is on Third Reading. Voting should proceed shortly. Only one amendment passed, commissioning a study on permit verifiability. There will be some debate before the vote. I’ll fill you in on if any of the bullcrap is different than what we’ve already heard today.

I just sat with my daughter watching C-SPAN (she’s 10). What a great opportunity to explain how the legislative process works, and how different Democrats and Republicans are. This essentially fell along party lines, which puzzles me…what is it about the bill which would polarize the debate? I realize my view is tilted towards 2A support, but how do you oppose it? Is it that Democrats stereotypically support the poor, and the poor are generally considered “victims” of gun violence? I was glad to see about 1/4-1/3 of Democrats supporting through the amendments and final vote…

Keep in mind that it would have been far more bi-partisan if a huge chunk of the Blue Dog coalition wasn’t dumped in 2010 to punish Obama & Pelosi. I’m not arguing that voters shouldn’t have done that, it’s just that there are so many Dems who are actually pro-gun, but they aren’t serving in Congress right now because voters needed to send a message to the party leaders.

Keep in mind, a good reason to push bills like this, is because it helps you sort friend from foe. I don’t like going a Congress without politicians being put to an actual vote. Now we know several individuals we thought were our friends are no such things. That’s worth something even if this never ends up law.

This will be even MORE worthwhile in the Senate, where the last Senate failed to pass a more liberal version of this by one vote. Several ostensibly Yea voters were cleared to vote Yea because the Senate leadership knew it would fail. They will not only have to go on record again on this, but if they want to flop, explain the Yea vote for the previous bill and a Nay vote for this one.

This bill would be lovely to pass, but it’s more important to prep the 2012 election battlespace, and to know where to allocate lobbying and fundraising efforts.

I don’t think it’s shocking he voted for it. It was a little disappointing that he didn’t co-sponsor, but somewhat understandable. If the bill was never going to come up in a vote, then there was no need to co-sponsor to create an issue to use against him in the next campaign. But, since it did come up, he voted with us. It’s a rather odd dance that some of the suburban legislators need to consider. Fitzpatrick can get away with it because a lot of the Democrats in his district are blue collar types who own guns, shoot, & hunt. I don’t know if that’s as much the case in some of the other areas.

Bitter is dead right! I called and e mailed 6 times to get him to co sponsor. All I got was the standard e mail response back, blah, blah, blah, see where it goes, blah, blah..

But I called him, in the Springfield office, and had 5 other people call also to vote YES on reciprocity. I followed up with a thank you card, hand written and e mail to tell him I appreciate it. I always mention I am a NRA member.

I will vote for Obama if he signs this as well. He has everything to gain and nothing to lose. He has virtually 100% of the black vote, and almost all of the leftist white people will vote for him no matter what anyway. It’s only the independents he has to court, many of whom are blue-collar gun nuts – exactly the sort of people who would vote Democratic if not for their support of gun control.

I saw a video a few years ago of Obama siding with DC in Heller v. DC. If you think he’s going to sign this as a stand alone bill, you are kidding yourself. He’s anti-gun to the core, and thinks a total ban on handguns is a “reasonable compromise.”

Maybe if it was packaged with something else he may sign. But I don’t think he will ever be faced with the possibility.

This is wonderful news, but does anybody think it has even a slim chance of making it to a vote in the senate? I hope it does, but getting 60 votes to allow a vote is going to be tough, especially with Schumer, Feinstein, and a couple others committed to blocking it.

Senate Majority Leader Reid (D-AZ) will be hard pressed to defend not allowing it to come to a vote considering his re-election will likely hinge on continuing to have the NRA’s backing.

He’ll also have to explain why he believes his constituents are trustworthy enough to carry without a permit at home but somehow become as dangerous as Schumer and Pelosi say they’ll be when they cross state lines.

Not at the moment. But, since we have Bob Casey up for election next year, this would be a great chance to ask him to step up on the issue. He owes us for flipflopping on it last time. He won’t do anything, but giving his office a bit of a headache over it isn’t a terrible idea. :)